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Vinegar Syrup

A sweet syrup made with sugar, vinegar, egg white, and marjoram.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vinegar Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Beat the egg white to stiff froth.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the egg white, sugar, and vinegar.

  3. Stir once and place over a charcoal fire.

  4. Boil for half a minute.

  5. Skim the syrup and remove from heat.

Flavour and bottle

  1. Add the marjoram and cover.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Strain through a clean cloth or silk sieve.

  4. Pour into a bottle, cork tightly, and store for use.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + marjoramtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together421 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + malttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Malt + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together365 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Caster sugar
Provides the bulk of the syrup and its sweetness, and helps set the body of the finished syrup.
Malt vinegar
Adds the sharp acidity that gives the syrup its characteristic tang.
Egg white
Whisked into the mixture, it binds and carries impurities to the surface so they can be skimmed off, clarifying the syrup.

The step that matters

Skim the syrup before removing it from heat. Brief boiling makes the egg white coagulate and rise, carrying impurities with it. Skimming thoroughly removes these, so the strained syrup comes out clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the marjoram

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, malt, vinegar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Marjoramthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, malt, vinegar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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